During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped more bombs on supply routes in Laos than it did on all of Europe during World War II. Laos is paying the price, as the countryside is still riddled with unexploded bombs — many of which look like harmless metal spheres. Bomb disposal units are trying to reclaim the land from tons of unexploded ordnance.

Now, let's talk about an inadvertent American export: unexploded bombs. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped more bombs on Laos than it did on all of Europe during World War II - an estimated 1.6 million tons. That made Laos the most heavily bombed country in the world by some measures.

Americans were trying to disrupt communist supply lines along the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, much of which ran through Laos on its way back into Vietnam. But a lot of the bombs that were dropped did not detonate, and they are still creating problems 40 years later. NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent Michael Sullivan reports.

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In this article nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers Channapha Khamvongsa and Elaine Russell discuss the massive illegal U.S. bombing of Laos between 1964 and 1973 and its lingering human, economic, and ecological toll. They survey the history of foreign intervention in Laos, with special emphasis on the cold war-era civil war and U.S. intervention. The authors describe continuing civilian casualties and obstacles to development posed by unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos, and detail current efforts for UXO removal. The authors propose a formal reconciliation process between the United States and Laos in which the U.S. government would accept responsibility for the long-term effects of the bombing and the governments would cooperate with NGOs and the United Nations in a transparent process to fund UXO removal ...more

More than 100 countries will today sign a convention banning the use of cluster bombs. In Laos, the most bombed nation on earth, their lethal legacy is a part of daily life.

The Guardian

Wednesday December 3 2008

Part of a US bomber lies in a temple in Phanop village, Laos. "We keep it here to remind the children of what happened," the monk said. "If one day we badly need money we might sell it for the scrap value." Photograph: Sean Sutton/Mines Advisory Group ...more

Photo by Stanislas FradeliziLaos still paying the price of Vietnam war
Reuters AlterNet
Written by: Thin Lei Win

Xieng Khouang, Laos - Imagine growing up in a country where the equivalent of a B52 planeload of cluster bombs was dropped every eight minutes for nine years.

Then imagine seeing your children and grandchildren being killed and maimed by the same bombs, three decades after the war is over. ...more

The Mennonite Central Committee website has video clips from their Cluster Bomb speakers tour.  The interviews feature perspectives from Lebanese and Laotian survivors ...more

The disabled in Laos are using media programmes initiated by NGOs to raise public awareness about themselves and to champion for their rights. (Youtube Video) ...more